Here's something that I discovered today

Edward II was listed at number 192 in the top 500 lesbian and gay heroes in The Pink Paper, 10th. October, 1997, issue 502, page 15

Well, you learn something every day.
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/stafflag/gaymillennium4.html

Edward II got a bit of a bad press in Marlowe's play . He didn't come over too well in "Braveheart" either but given that the history element of Braveheart http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotbiblio/bravehearterrors.shtml was laughable, I'm not entirely surprised.

As for the poker, I'm afraid that I have nothing more to add. If it was true it sounds pretty unpleasant, although, weren't the Middle Ages just a time of unrelenting misery, especially if you were famous (and worth killing) or just poor (and miserable)?